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Game Face

I’ve been insanely busy as my second munchkin turns six and has a birthday party this week, but not TOO busy that I don’t have a few things to share with you. Of course!

The first thing is that on SATURDAY, January 21, Cornwall and I will be watching the LAST TWO EPISODES of Goblin. AHHH! We are going to watch starting as soon as Dramafever puts them out, so watch for us on Twitter and Instagram, because we’ll be doing fun stuff and adding pictures. We want to fan girl with you!

The second thing is that Cornwall and I are heading right into writing K-Pop, and I know you all don’t know the character yet (more on the release date of K-Love later, so you can get to know them soon!), but Cornwall wrote a great backstory piece for the time between K-Love and K-Pop.

Essentially, our second lead in K-Love, whose name is Daniel, is a pop star in the Korean band Hipstar. Now, you know what happens to second leads.

Yeah, they don’t get the girl.

But this is our Kdrama, and we want the second lead to get a girl! So he doesn’t get the girl in K-Love, but that’s okay. We are giving him his own book with K-Pop. 😉 So feel free to fall in love with Daniel Bak!

This backstory piece is written from the perspective of Hipstar member Min Ho. We just wanted a feel for what it was like being a K-Pop star. Hope you enjoy it!

Game Face

They were about to start their twentieth song of the set list, all of them feeling the fatigue. Min Ho had just changed into the next outfit for the show, but the rain falling from the open dome had already soaked it. The lights on the stage were out, and his head was bowed, waiting in the darkness for the music to start.

The crowd never stopped screaming, but for now it was muted as the stage remained dark. His heart was beating fast, and drops of water ran down his hair, glistening in the ever present glow from the light sticks of 60,000 fans.

The first low beat hit, and he dropped to his knees as the spotlights burst over them. The noise in the stadium became deafening, the crowd screaming. One part of his brain filed that away, but now in their fifth year as a group, Min Ho didn’t let it distract him. He’d been trained for years to focus on moving his body and memorizing the song. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d lost his concentration during a show. It just didn’t happen.

Joon Young stood first, and then the rest of them jumped to their feet in one synchronized movement, which made the crowd scream louder. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hyong Suk get a little too close, but Min Ho knew he’d correct it on the next step, and he did.

The crowd began chanting back, echoing the lyrics on the offbeats, the entire stadium thundering out their love and obsession.

He moved into a slide, wary of the wet stage. They were all trying not to look as if they were moving carefully, but they were. They were staying more flat-footed than usual, their white-soled sneakers splashing water as they stomped through the routine.

The light sticks across the stadium were moving in time to the beat, a hypnotic rhythm that threatened to mesmerize, and he turned his eyes away for a second, keeping his mind on the choreography.

Suddenly the crowd screamed, and he looked over at the others, wondering what the deafening outburst was for. Jae Yoon’s shirt had pulled up, showing his chiseled abs as he danced, and Min Ho tried not to laugh.

Not that it would have mattered, because his mic was off. They were lip syncing, which some of them did better than others. They’d all decided that Joon Young was the best. Min Ho was the worst, and he admitted it. The times when he was singing with the track, he usually was off by half a beat, making it sound like two people were singing his lines.

Jae Yoon did not alter the choreography to fix his shirt until the last part of the song, which the crowd continued to appreciate.

On the last note, fireworks exploded, and Min Ho knelt again on the stage as the lights dimmed, his head bowed, listening to the crowd and mentally preparing for the next song.

Daniel was the only one standing, his eyes forward, game face on. If Jae Yoon was the sexy one in the group, then Daniel was the gentleman. The leader. He always held himself poised, aware of his audience.

The lights went up again, and the music started, the high notes of the ballad ringing out. Daniel’s smooth voice was clear and perfectly pitched, but even if it hadn’t been a recording, he would have been flawless.

As the fan lights swayed to the slow beat, Min Ho thought maybe Hipstar had a shot at being number one again. He hadn’t heard the crowd scream that loud in a while.

The crowd sang back to them, and this time, he let himself get lost in the lights.